The present invention relates generally to hydrogen storage media and methods.
Hydrogen storage involves energy storage in chemical form, and as such it is a key component in the chain of energy production, distribution and use. Hydrogen storage is a critical element of any energy system which is intended to make renewable energy production economically feasible, and enable much more efficient use of the conventional hydrocarbon-based energy sources.
Currently available hydrogen storage technology involves the use of palladium metal and palladium-based alloys, metal hydrates, carbon-based materials, including nanotubes and fullerenes, and the like. These conventional technologies have limited storage capacity, storage density, and slow uptake and release of hydrogen, are often not reversible, and have relatively high energy storage costs.
Conventional technologies are discussed by Sunita Satyapal of the DOE Hydrogen Program in a presentation entitled “Hydrogen Production and Storage R&D Activities at the U.S. Department of Energy,” in “Model behaviour,” Materials World, June 2005, pp. 21-23, by Xuebo Zhao, et al. in a paper entitled “Hysteretic Adsorption and Desorption of Hydrogen by Nanoporous Metal-Organic frameworks,” Science, Vol. 306, pp. 1012-1015, 5 Nov. 2004, in “Filling Up With Hydrogen,” Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 83, No. 34, pp. 42-47, Aug. 22, 2005, “Building a better hydrogen trap” U or M News Service, Nov. 17, 2005, “A route to high surface area, porosity and inclusion of large molecules in crystals,” Hee K. Chae, et al., Letters to Nature, Vol. 417, pp. 523-527, 5 Feb. 2004, “Hydrogen Storage in Microporous Metal-Organic frameworks,” Science, Vol. 300, pp. 1127-1129, 16 May 2003, and “Design of New Materials for Methane Storage,” Tina Duren, et al., Langmuir 2004, 20, 2683-2689.
It would be desirable to have improved hydrogen storage media and methods.